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It's not a big secret to see the constant rising of new artists from the Balkans area in recent years. For sure this part of Europe played a significant role in the general psytrance scene during the last decade, offering many great artists in psytrance and progressive trance genres, but in the last couple of years, the sound of Goa trance is slowly rising and we're seeing more and more gatherings, new artists and music coming from this area of very steep mountains surrounded by the Adriatic Sea on the northwest, Ionian Sea on the southwest, the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea on the south and southeast, and the Black Sea on the east and northeast. I'm not gonna writte about the exact origins and influences, but I would rather give my perception of artists and labels coming from this area who are worth checking. The Balkan Peninsual covers entirely countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, but it also partially covers other countries such as Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece, Turkey and Romania. There is no dominant influence within Goa trance produced by artists from Balkans, and mostly you can experience various styles such as oldschool influenced Goa trance (Imba, Radical Distortion, Lunar Dawn), melodic Goa trance (Artifact303, Mindsphere, Goasia), full-on/psytrance influenced Goa trance (Nova Fractal, Siam, PsiloCybian), more darker type of Goa trance (E-Mantra, Arronax), and so on. Due the fact that this part of Europe has been blessed by the many cultural influences from the east through the history, the general sense for melody and especially for the Oriental type of melody (which are a common part of Goa trance music in many examples) has been developed long time ago and it became a huge part of the folklore and the tradition of these countries. The exact number of artists coming from this huge area is impossible to give at this moment, due to my limited knowledge about each and every artist, but I will list some of my favorite examples and you can check them out if you haven't already: M-Run (Croatia) Nova Fractal (Croatia) Liquid Flow (Croatia) Goasia (Croatia/Serbia) Lunar Dawn (Croatia) Omnivox [ex-Vox] (Croatia) Adrenalin Run (Croatia) Project Shidartha (Croatia) PsiloCybian/Screw Loose (Croatia) Artifact303 (Romania) E-Mantra (Romania) Primal Source (Romania) Suufi Astrolab (Romania) Radical Distortion (Greece) Zed Reactor (Greece) Siam (Greece) Omegahertz (Greece) Psychedelic Quest (Greece) Ion Vader (Greece) Arronax (Bosnia & Herzegovina) CoaGoa (Bosnia & Herzegovina) Imba (Serbia) Hybrid FX (Serbia) Space Elves (Serbia/Bosnia & Herzegovina/UK) Oxi (Serbia) Goasia (Serbia/Croatia) Chemical Products (Serbia) Nemesis (Serbia) Mindsphere (Turkey) Travma (Turkey) Boneva (Turkey) InnerSelf (Macedonia) Cosmic Dimension (Macedonia) Celestial Intelligence (Macedonia) Sirius (Macedonia) Paramatma (Macedonia) Astraveta (Albania) Dhamsuta (Albania) OGO (Bulgaria) Record labels specialized in Goa trance sound which are active are Ezel Ebed from Turkey, Neogoa netlabel from Croatia, Underground Alien Factory netlabel and Ultiva Records from Serbia, Goa Galaxy netlabel from Bulgaria, Moonquest from Romania and ElxisDG from Greece. The party scene also is getting bigger and bigger and often we're seeing parties 100% dedicated to Goa trance music only. This tred for sure will continue to grow in upcoming years thanks to the rising interest in Goa trance music on bigger festivals aswell, to name one of the biggest in this part of Europe - Lost Theory Festival. I hope you guys liked this short review of Goa trance music present in this area and please feel free to improve my lists and add your own suggestions, or leave a comment! Cheers